UK leads the rest of Europe in RFID trials

The UK is conducting more trials involving radio frequency identity (RFID) tags than any other country in Europe, according to research.

Some 10.4 per cent of all European RFID trials are being conducted in the UK, says research from analyst IDTechEX.

Globally, the US is the only country with more trials under way, conducting 32.6 per cent of the projects known to the analyst.

Dr Peter Harrop, RFID specialist at IDTechEX, says RFID has made particular inroads in the UK retail sector because UK companies sell more brands than their European counterparts.

'There is a very competitive retail environment in the UK,' said Harrop. 'Retailers are keen to use RFID for competitive advantage because they have few own-branded products compared with their counterparts in Europe, where managing the supply chain is easier.'

RFID has also made progress in the UK thanks to large projects such as London's transport smartcard, Oyster, he says.

'Where is the Continental equivalent of the $1.7bn (£0.9bn) London bus and train RFID order for Oyster?' said Harrop.

AMR Research analyst Nigel Montgomery says RFID vendors are starting to look at making money from the system rather than running trial projects.

'Now the vendors have their references, they will want companies to help pay for their initial investment,' he said.

See also:

Ignorance putting RFID rollouts at risk

RFID technology firms do not understand retail, warns analyst  16 Mar 2005

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